It's All About You

In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, author Ben Horowitz writes about what he calls, “The Struggle.”

In The Tough Stuff, Cody Royle writes about a similar feeling he dubs, “The Weight.”

In your typical coaching leadership book, they might only cover 5% or less of the struggle. The rest of the book is filled with cliches and leadership “fluff.” I’ve wasted numerous hours reading “coaching books” that offered zero value. These 2 books are different. I recommend reading both.

In this book, we share the struggles of leadership and how it can derail your health, your relationships and your life. Sharing the struggle does a few things:

It makes you relatable

I'm not some superhuman that had this one plan and executed it perfectly like we are led to believe by reading “mainstream pop leadership books.”

People can learn from where you went off the rails

It does a whole lot more good to hear about trials, missteps, iterations, and mistakes than it does for us to read another book about this “perfect season” where everything goes right. I’m done reading those books. It’s a fairytale.

A Bit About My Story

27 years old. Halfway through my 2nd full season as a head coach. Should have been the time of my life.

My battles with myself were ruining me. I had no energy at the rink or at home. I was skipping workouts at an alarming rate for someone who graduated with a degree in strength and conditioning and loved the gym.

My phone conversations with my girlfriend were mostly complaining and emotionally volatile. My in-person conversations with my coaching staff were incredibly cynical. Complaining about a job I was lucky to have. Complaining about being a “hockey coach.” When I look back on it, I can’t believe it was me.

But honestly, it wasn’t me…

I was absolutely lost. Crushed and transformed by “The Weight.”

I don’t recognize that person anymore.

It didn’t matter that my curriculum for player development was progressive. It didn’t matter that we had done right by a few players that had them called up to the next level. It didn’t matter that I had a “dream job.”

Because I wasn’t right. And when you’re not right, nothing is right.

This book shares my struggles and gives you some solutions for improving your health as a leader. As coaches, we often think we are above "behaving like a high performer." We tell our players to eat well and then grab McDonald's on the way to the rink in the morning. We tell them to sleep 8-10 hours to maximize their performance but we stay up all night watching film, beaming toxic, blue light into our eyes and sleep 4 hours.

This book teaches you how to treat yourself as the high performer that you are.

Ready? Put it in your cart and let's get to work!